Officer who shot Breonna Taylor will be dismissed

Breonna Taylor was shot dead at home

Credit: Courtesy of Taylor Family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP, File

The Louisville police officer who shot black emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor has been told he will be dismissed, as the force faces a reckoning on police brutality.

Lawyers for Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Ms Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared the search warrant, said in a statement that each had received notices of termination.

Ms Taylor’s death when police entered her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, early on March 13 was one of a string of killings of black people that fuelled mass protest demonstrations across the US in 2020.

Ms Taylor’s boyfriend, who was with her when police burst into the home, fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck the 26-year-old, killing her. A ballistics analysis determined that Detective Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Ms Taylor, officials said.

Until now, the only officer held accountable in the case had been Brett Hankison, a former detective who was fired in June for violating the department’s deadly force policy by shooting off 10 rounds from outside Ms Tayor’s apartment.

He was indicted in September on counts of wanton endangerment because shots he fired entered a neighbouring apartment.

Their union, the River City Fraternal Order of Police, said it was "aware that two of our members received pre-termination opportunity to respond notices today, outlining the chief’s current intent to terminate their employment".

Both Mr Cosgrove and Mr Jaynes have been on administrative reassignment during the investigation.

Mr Jaynes’ pre-termination letter accused him of breaching department policies around truthfulness and preparing for a warrant’s execution.

"These are extreme violations of our policies, which endangered others," the letter read. "Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department."

"We intend to show up to the pre-termination hearing on Dec. 31 and we’re going to contest this action, although I’m not optimistic about Interim Chief Vyette Gentry changing her decision," Thomas Clay, Mr Jaynes’ lawyer, said in a statement to local media.

The decision has been seen by many in the city as marking an end to the force’s culture of impunity.

But earlier on Tuesday, the US Justice Department announced it will not charge the Cleveland police officers who fatally shot Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy holding a toy gun in 2014.

Prosecutors "found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback," the Justice Department said in a statement on the Ohio killing.